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Tarrant Crawford is a small village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
at the lower end of the
Tarrant Valley in
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The River Tarrant joins the larger
River Stour here. The village consists of two small settlements: Crawford Farm and a few houses in the Stour Valley, and Tarrant Abbey Farm, a church, and a few houses in the Tarrant Valley about to the north. Locals regard the two settlements as separate villages. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 20.
At the Crawford settlement there is a
wayside cross
Wayside may refer to:
* Wayobjects, trackside objects
*Wayside (band), an early version of As Friends Rust
* ''Wayside'' (TV series), a television show based on the children's book ''Sideways Stories from Wayside School''
*A rest area
Places
; ...
which has an inscription which reads:
"THIS WAYSIDE CROSS WAS RESTORED & SET ON NEW STEPS ON THE OLD SITE BY MANY FRIENDS OF TARRANT CRAWFORD ANNO DOM MDCCCCXIV"
Th
1881 censussays - No. of households/schedules 11, Uninhabited houses 0, Males 31, Females 30, Total 61
Tarrant Abbey
Tarrant Abbey Farm was in medieval times the site of
Tarrant Abbey
Tarrant Abbey was a Cistercian nunnery in Tarrant Crawford, Dorset, England.
History
The abbey was founded as an independent monastery in 1186 by Ralph de Kahaines (of nearby Tarrant Keyneston) and has been identified as a possible site of "Came ...
, founded in the 12th century by Ralph de Kahaines (of nearby
Tarrant Keyneston
Tarrant Keyneston is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated in the Tarrant Valley, southeast of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had 152 dwellings, 145 households and a population of 310.
On the hills nor ...
) as a
Cistercian nunnery
Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order belonging to the Roman Catholic branch of the Catholic Church.
History
The first Cistercian monastery for women, Le Tart Abbey, was established at Tart-l'Abbaye in t ...
, later supposedly the richest in England.
Two famous people are associated with the abbey:
Queen Joan, the wife of
Alexander II of Scotland
Alexander II ( Medieval Gaelic: '; Modern Gaelic: '; 24 August 1198 – 6 July 1249) was King of Scotland from 1214 until his death. He concluded the Treaty of York (1237) which defined the boundary between England and Scotland, virtually un ...
and daughter of King
John of England
John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Emp ...
(Richard I's brother and successor), is buried in the graveyard (supposedly in a golden coffin), and Bishop
Richard Poore
Richard Poore or Poor (died 15 April 1237) was a medieval English bishop best known for his role in the establishment of Salisbury Cathedral and the City of Salisbury, moved from the nearby fortress of Old Sarum. He served as Bishop of Chic ...
, builder of
Salisbury Cathedral, who was baptised in the abbey church and later (in 1237) buried in the abbey, which he founded. He was at one time Dean of the old cathedral at
Old Sarum
Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the now ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest r ...
, and later became bishop of first
Chichester
Chichester () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publi ...
, then
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of ...
and finally
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
* Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
.
St Mary's Church
Saint Mary's Church, near Tarrant Abbey Farm, is known for its 13th- and 14th-century wall paintings, many of which are in a remarkable state of preservation.
References
Further reading
* Miller, Alan. ''Monasteries of Dorset''. Albemarle Books 1999.
External links
Personal interest site with information about Tarrant CrawfordPhotographs and Information on St Mary's Church etc. from Strolling Guides
{{authority control
Villages in Dorset